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Mabuni on why fewer kata is better

I was reading earlier today and I thought this paragraph was well worth sharing:

“Simply knowing a kata does not make one strong. Knowing fewer kata is better: It is necessary to understand kata deeply and make them your own. In the past, there were few karate-justu experts who knew many kata. If you specialise and study a small number of kata, then you will be a serious student of karate. My senior, Miyagi Chojun [founder of Goju-Ryu] only practised Sanchin kata for many years, and there is almost no one in Okinawa who does not know his name. If an individual studies a single kata correctly and deeply, it is more profitable than studying ten.” – Kenwa Mabuni, 1934

It’s a view that is shared by many here of course. I also think this paragraph succinctly captures a key difference between modern practise and the practise of the past.

All the best,

Iain

PS Ironic that the WKF has Shito-Ryu (the style Mabuni founded) listed as having around 50 kata … way more than any other style!

I think that most of that generation of karateka were of the same opinion and it is easy to see why.

It seems to me the reason that they all founded styles with far more kata than they deemed neccessary was more to do with preserving the art than because they felt everyone needed to learn and practice all of them. Thus we find shito ryu with its 50 or so kata, shotokan with 26 ish, wado with around 10, goju with 14 or so etc. You could say that Mabuni was the most concerned of the founders with cataloguing kata. By stark contrast, Motobu only practiced and taught the few he felt he needed and did not bother with trying to preserve others.

This pattern was common in the early 20th century development of Japanese arts where we see Kano's judo create a massive syllabus of different kata and about 60 to 70 throws with only a fraction of that (the randori no kata) being the core syllabus. Returning to the Okinawan arts, Taira and Matayoshi also created their kobujutsu syllabi as extensive catalogues of many different local forms to preserve them for posterity.

I think this also reflects the changes in the societal role of the martial arts, going from closed door, insular groups to larger bodies aimed at spreading their arts publically. Thus the responsibility changed from passing on "my art" to preserving "the wider art".

I love the part about making the kata your own - shows we should get away from admiring the rigid similarities and appreciating the diversity of versions that are produced by such depth in study. Gotta live the irony over the kata numbers too!!!

It seems to me the reason that they all founded styles with far more kata than they deemed necessary was more to do with preserving the art than because they felt everyone needed to learn and practice all of them.

That’s an extremely valid point and I think there is a distinction to be made between “practise for use” and “practise for preservation”. A person could know the sequences of many kata (in order to preserve the external form for others), but “really know” one or two.